REPORT OF UNESCO EXPERT MEETING ON - APCEIU

Education for Sustainable Development &
the Weaving of A Cultural of Peace:
Complementarities and Synergies 1
Toh Swee-Hin (S. H. Toh), Professor & Director,
Multi-Faith Centre, Griffith University
Introduction
The proclamation by the U.N General Assembly of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development (2005-2014) undoubtedly provides a major impetus for the promotion and integration of
principles of “sustainable development” in all levels and modes of education worldwide. Indeed, UNESCO, as
a leading agency for implementing the DESD, has identified tit as one of the four global initiatives in
education, the others being the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education for All (EFA) and the
United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD). As the UNESCO Education Sector’s Technical paper No. 1-2005
“Education for Sustainable Development in Action” clarified, these four initiatives, while different in focus and
emphases, are interrelated and need to work together to fulfill a common agenda and overlapping goals.
However, drawing on my extensive and long-term role as a peace educator or in educating for a culture of
peace, I feel it is meaningful to observe that several substantive and well developed innovations or
movements in education are not identified as global initiatives in their own right. Apart from peace
education, there are of course the long-standing fields of disarmament education, human rights education,
multicultural or intercultural education, education for international understanding, citizenship education, and
values education. In the UNESCO Technical Paper earlier mentioned, some of these initiatives are
mentioned only in a subsidiary way when ESD is defined as emphasizing “aspects of learning that enhance
the transition towards sustainability including future(s) education; citizenship education; education for a
culture of peace; gender equality and respect for human rights; health education; population education;
educating for protecting and managing natural resources; and education for sustainable consumption”.
It is important to recall that the international community, through the U.N., also affirmed the global
significance of these other initiatives, such as the recently concluded Decade for Human Rights Education
(1995-2004), and the ongoing International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of
the World (2001-2010). I have raised this observation principally because there are considerable
complementarities and synergy of ideas and practices between and among all of these initiatives. Most
importantly, we need to accord due respect to the commitment and tireless efforts of many individuals,
communities, schools and other educational, social and cultural institutions or civil society organizations that
are continuing to transform our contemporary realities of violence, militarization, injustices, human rights
violations, ecological destruction and all forms of discrimination.
Specifically, in regard to the field of education for a culture of peace, the Mid-Term Report on the International
Decade coordinated by David Adams and submitted in 2005 to the United Nations documented a broad range
of programs and projects confirming that education can contribute creatively to the urgent goal of building a
culture of peace. Indeed, as a lead agency for implementing the Decade, UNESCO has helped to facilitate
some of these successful programs in education for a culture of peace, through conferences, forums, teacher
training workshops, curriculum development, ASP projects and UNESCO /UNITWIN Chairs. UNESCO
Centres such as the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) has actively
promoted EIU toward a culture of peace. Likewise, there are many exemplars of civil society movements (e.g.
Hague Appeal for Peace, International Institutes on Peace Education) and universities worldwide (e.g. UN
University for Peace, Costa Rica) that are doing valuable work in promoting peace education. Based on my
personal experiences in South contexts, notably in the Philippines since 1986, when I collaborated in
commencing the first graduate program in peace education, there is now extensive awareness and practice in
education for a culture of peace from schools and universities to grassroots communities.
1 (This paper draws on ideas and issues in the Introduction essay in APCEIU (2005) Learning to Live
Together: A Teacher’s Manual for EIU in the Asia-Pacific Region)
66